I have lived in East Ridge for most of my life, and I don’t remember a time when we’ve had so many positive retail and development projects taking place. I believe this is a transformative time for East Ridge. At the forefront of this activity is the Jordan Crossing/Bass Pro Shops project. Obviously, no one person can take sole credit for this project, but there is one person who has been instrumental in the three key steps that led us to where we are. That person is Mayor Brent Lambert.
1) Over the course of three years, Mayor Lambert represented the city in meetings with two different TDOT Commissioners, Gerald Nicely and John Schroer, as well as deputy commissioners and various TDOT staff members. In fact, the first of these meetings took place the morning after he was sworn in as mayor. The end result was the successful effort to assemble over 30 acres of land for development purposes at Exit 1 and TDOT’s approval to remove a “tree screen” so that the development site would have maximum interstate visibility. If either of these efforts had failed, then the project would have been dead before it even started.
2) Mayor Lambert pushed the city’s effort to apply for “Border Region” status in 2011 and helped to draw the Border Region district map that will help East Ridge see development and redevelopment from one end of Ringgold Road to the other for years to come. The mayor followed up these efforts by meeting with Tennessee Commissioner of Revenue Richard Roberts as well as Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey to plead the city’s case for inclusion in this remarkable program. The end result was East Ridge being one of just three cities in the entire state that can take advantage of this legislation. If this work had failed, then there would be no Bass Pro Shops project and little hope of ever seeing large-scale redevelopment along Ringgold Road. The Bass Pro deal needed the incentives allowed by the Border Region status, but the Border Region also needed the Bass Pro project to be its “triggering” event.
3) Mayor Lambert has worked diligently over the last few months to ensure the East Ridge City Council, the East Ridge Industrial Development Board, and the Jordan Crossing developers worked harmoniously for the overall benefit of our city. If these efforts had bogged down and the three entities had not worked well together, then once again, this project would not be happening.
Clearly we should be proud of and thankful for Mayor Lambert’s leadership. Rather than making pessimistic statements about the Exit One land and developers as some city officials have done repeatedly, Mayor Lambert believed in the project from day one. He has both the vision and the leadership ability that is helping this city reach new heights. You can bet I’ll be voting for Mayor Lambert again.
James King
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You know it takes a village to accomplish things in East Ridge, Mr. King, and it took five on the council to get Bass Pro or any business here. But that's not all that makes a good mayor or council member is it?
Jim Bethune is a honest, loyal, hard working man who has been the councilman, vice mayor and now should be our mayor. He has voted against taxes, he is out and about visiting the local businesses everyday looking for ways to improve our city and spend local money here in East Ridge.
The points on paper HTMLsound good but it takes a team working together to bring those things to pass. So let's vote to put in Jim Bethune for our new mayor and let's put in Mr. Jacky Cagle for councilman.
Jacky was a loyal employee of the city of East Ridge for many years and he can bring to the table inside facts and ways to improve our city that few might know of.
So come out and early vote starting tomorrow, Oct. 15, 10 a.m. at the Brainerd Complex on Brainerd Road.
Denny Manning